ASUS' motherboard product line is so diverse that even reviewers need a score card. For LGA1155 alone, there are nine different chipsets in ASUS' current offerings, and subdivisions within each chipset line. There are eleven current ASUS Z77-based motherboards, and that's not counting a few that have been shown to the press but not formally introduced yet.

ASUS enthusiast motherboards fall into three broad categories: the Republic of Gamers series, with features that cater to extreme overclockers and gamers; specialty lines like the workstation oriented "WS" series, and the mainstream line. What Benchmark Reviews has today is the top end of ASUS' mainstream P8Z77 line, the P8Z77-V Deluxe.

Every panel on this box (including the flip-up lid over the display window, through which you can see your shiny new motherboard without having to open the box) is covered with layer upon layer of feature and specification listings. This motherboard seemingly has everything except the kitchen sink, but how much of it can you really use?

Testing Methodology and Specifications

I was fortunate enough to have three new Intel Z77 Express motherboards available: the MSI Z77A-GD65 that I've previously reviewed, a new Intel DZ77GA-70K, and the subject of this performance comparison, the ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe.

I compared the performance of the motherboards at stock speeds using the benchmark programs listed below, with a spiffy new Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K CPU. Since the Core i7-3770K's "HD 4000" integrated graphics shares L3 cache and memory bandwidth with the CPU cores, I disabled it and use and AMD Radeon HD5770 video card for all benchmarks. I used the same processor, hard disk, and memory on each motherboard, so that the motherboards were the only thing that changed between tests. Any performance differences at stock clock speeds are thus due to the motherboards.

On the ASUS motherboard, I also ran the benchmarks at the highest overclock I could achieve.

Comments

Thanks David! The plan review doesn't tell me the hardware info I need. The review article was as good and maybe better than many others. Yet this is the information and the reason I subscribe to Benchmark.Thanks again.

I got the motherboard the ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe, Intel Core i7-3770 (the non k version) and the Nvidia Asus 680 Gtx (this is the reference card, not the newer version with the fancy fan cooler).

So i updated windows 7 with all the patches and everything. Installed the motherboard drivers from the dvd, as well as updated my graphics card drivers.

But i have an issue of my pc crashing and i don't know why seeing as this was just reformated to install these brand new hardware. So i haven't been installing anthing much before these crash issues.

I noted that when i play my video player it will very likely crash. I'm using the potplayer using this guide to set it up with the relevant codecs#imouto.my/configuring-potplayer-for-gpu-accelerated-video-playback-with-dxva-or-cuda-and-also-high-performance-software-decoding/

Speaking of which, i noticed when watching high quality 1080p anime of Claymore, the video shows tearing, even i used a different video player HC-mpc with CCCP codec pack at default settings. The same video and other videos never had this issue. I was previously using this graphics card for my older nephalem rig and it worked fine then.

So the issue may have to do with the motherboard is my guess.

I also set my bios to default settings, but using the AHCI for SATA. Because when i tried to change it to IDE, the PC spazzed out and wouldn't boot.

I did upgrade to the latest bios firmware which is 0906 , release date 03/26/2012

It's either your video card, or the graphics driver. I suggest downloading the latest driver for the GeForce GTX 680, then uninstalling the NVIDIA driver software, restarting the system, and install the new driver.

i deleted the potplayer and all those codecs. then i just installed cccp with the default settings and play the video with hc-mpc that came with cccp.

video works without tearing.

But my pc still locks up for some reason. Meaning i don't get BSOD, but instead my whole screen becomes unresponsive and frozen. The mouse pointer doesn't move, and control alt delete doesn't do anything.

I'm using Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D which is a 6gb (3x2gb ddr3 tri kit)#benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=67

by the way, what is the suggested settings in bios for this motherboard with the ivy bridge i7 non k quad core cpu ?

Like i already know the sata ought to use AHCI. But what about the other settings ?

I really hope you add this into your review for newbies like me that aren't sure what needs to be enabled/disabled for best features and performance.

A typical example would be the latest intel internal graphics card thing called quick something .... should this be enabled or not ? Because i noticed tearing in my video player. It only resolved when i set the PCIE to be my main graphics card, and disabled the integrated graphics card. I also didn't install the internal graphics drivers because i think it would conflict with my nvidia 680 gtx drivers.

In general the board's default settings are all you need for proper operation. The P8Z77-V Deluxe is a very complex, top-end motherboard aimed at knowledgeable enthusiasts, and a full trip through all the possible settings for any given CPU would be dozens of pages long.

You should install the integrated graphics driver (if you're going to use the integrated graphics, either to drive a separate monitor or with Lucid Virtu). They will not conflict with any other graphics driver in your system.

To get the best performance, of course, you need to overclock. Since you're a self-described newbie, I'd suggest that rather than trying to tweak BIOS settings manually, you start out simple with ASUS' "CPU Level Up" feature, will will apply a safe overclock to your processor. Later, you can use ASUS' "Turbo V Evo" utility in Windows to run a "tuned" overclock, which will iterate through various settings, run stress tests, and so forth until it finds the best overclock it can.

Later, as you become more familiar with the various settings, you can experiment more on your own.

So i'm waiting 24 hours before i say anything further, but i'm suspecting the issue was because the ram was not configured properly .... the auto settings for the frequency and voltage had to be changed apparently.... to the manual spec :X

Another thing i would like to see in your review is in regards to the RealtekŪ ALC898 and how it would compare to other dedicated sound cards like the Asus Xonar.

##overclock.net/t/1236188/realtek-alc898-vs-asus-xonar-dx

The reason i ask is, i had to remove my Auzentech XFI prelude sound card, because it uses the regular pci lanes missing from this Asus board. I'm not angry about it, as i don't want to use legacy stuff anyway.

So the question now is, is it worth getting a new PCIE x 1 sound card like an Asus Xonar ? Or is the internal soundcard sufficient ?

I got some Aktimate stereo Hifi speakers. I also have ATH-A900 Audio Technica headphones. I also have a blue yeti microphone :X so those are all my audio gear ... so will the alcatel for this mobo be sufficient ?

my pc gaming rig hasn't frozen or locked in the past 24 hours, where as before it did within less than an hour of operation. so i can conclude that leaving auto settings on the asus z77 deluxe panther point is not recommended.

The frequency and voltage of the ddr3 stick installed has to match the specification of the stick, seeing as leaving it on auto may cause freeze/lockups.

i would appreciate further tips of what other settings in the bios i ought to configure.

The DDR3 standard hasn't changed; the signals and protocols are the same now as they were back when it was introduced. Any existing DDR3 memory kit should be able to run at its rated speed on any system that supports DDR3 memory (obviously we're not talking about ECC memory or anything like that, just normal desktop memory).

Now, things like XMP standards have changed. But that's just what your motherboard can (optionally) use to automatically set timing and voltages. You should still be able to set things manually.

So yes, I'd still recommend contacting Corsair. They have a company-supported set of forums on their web site, and even if I'm wrong about compatibility at least you'll have some definitive information from the vendor, rather than guesswork.

Okay i created a support ticket. Hm.... i wonder, so seeing as i'm running my rig on non oc settings with updates drivers, on a clean and recently installed rig, and it's confirmed that my ddr3 corsair dominator 6gb kit cannot run at 1600mhz freq at 1.65v, what are the solutions you think ?

1. pr bs that this should be expected as it wasn't designed/tested for this mobo. i pretty much get nothing.

2. some vague promise about asking asus to add bios support for this kit ?

3. they send in a replacement for the exact same model and hope it works ?

"X.M.P: Extreme memory profile, use this option if you have Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge qualifiedXMP memory.

X.M.P. profiles contain pre-sets for system buses and in some cases voltages. If the specified speed of the DIMMs is greater than the supported memory frequency of the platform, a platform specific X.M.P. profile option becomes mandatory because processor core and memory controller voltage requirements vary from architecture to architecture.

High-speed enthusiast memory kits manufactured before the inception of the Sandybridge/Ivy Bridge platforms may not contain the necessary/adequate voltage offset settings for the system to be completely stable. In such instances, manual adjustments of memory controller voltage and memory timings may be necessary."##overclock.net/t/1248928/asus-z77-series-information-thread-drivers-bioses-overclocking-reviews-updated-5-3

"The TR3X6G1600C8D is a 6144 MB kit of DDR3 SDRAM DIMMs based upon Corsair's high performance Dominator family of memory which includes Intel's Extreme Memory Profiles (XMP 1.2). This enables a robust, profile based high performance DDR3 over-clocking solution for Intel X58 platforms targeted for enthusiasts, gamers and overclockers who want to extract maximum performance from their platforms. Built using Corsair's Dual-path Heat Xchange (DHX) technology, this part delivers outstanding performance in the latest generation of X58 DDR3-based motherboards. This memory has been verified to operate at 1600MHz at latencies of 8-8-8-24 at 1.65V VDIMM."

So my ram does have XMP but is 1.2 not the newer 1.3 (should this matter ?) but i can confirm right now this ram is not stable at 1600 mhz freq for this Asus Z77 Deluxe mobo. 1333mhz is stable however.

then you need to play with the IMC (internal memory controller) and dimm voltages until it becomes stable..... Like I said in the second part of my reply do not rely on auto settings to get it right it may take you tweaking settings in the BIOS to get them to run stable at 1600MHz

I bought this motherboard right befor the Ive bridge Processers came out. I have the Sandy bridge 2700k in it. and a gtx580 . do I need to upgrade to the ivy bridge, to take avantage of this bords potental ??? and will the gtx 680 and gtx 690 work with the processer I have. It seams like there throughing all these parts out there, and not giving us a clue as to how they work together.

Moving to an Ivy Bridge CPU will get you PCI-E 3.0 lanes, almost doubling the throughput to your graphics cards and other devices. However, this won't make any real-world difference in performance. The NVIDIA GTX 680/690 will work fine with your current processor. Right now there's no reason for you to switch to an Ivy Bridge.